A proposal by the Marshall Islands and Colombia calling for a transition away from fossil fuels at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) failed to make it into the council’s declaration on climate change and human rights issued on Tuesday.
At a meeting in Geneva, the 47 member countries of the UNHRC held annual discussions on its annual resolution which encompasses various issues relevant to human rights, from conflicts to gender and education.
This year, the UNHRC issued a resolution on human rights and climate change, calling on countries to deliver “deep and rapid cuts in global emissions” to minimise climate change impacts. It also urges states to meet the recently adopted $300-billion-a-year climate finance goal by 2035.
On Monday, the Pacific island state and Colombia proposed an amendment calling on countries to achieve emissions cuts “by transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner”, replicating the language agreed at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
But after closed-door negotiations, both countries removed the divisive draft proposal, clearing the way for the resolution to be adopted by consensus.
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The Marshall Islands’ ambassador to the UN, Doreen Debrum, said during the Council session that her country “places a high premium on collaboration, dialogue and consensus – and we were willing to recognise this by withdrawing our amendment”.
“We look forward to working with all members of the Council – including our co-sponsors and the core group – to ensure this important issue continues to receive the attention it deserves,” she added.
“Frustrating” resolution
Sébastien Duyck, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), welcomed parts of the UNHRC resolution, such as a call for finance to address loss and damage from climate impacts, but said the outcome on fossil fuels was “extremely frustrating”.
“Some of the fossil fuel-producing countries are hellbent on delaying and rejecting any step that will help send political messages recognising the need to transition away from fossil fuels,” Duyck told Climate Home News. “It increases the disconnect between this resolution and the actual policies that we need to see.”
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UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights Elisa Morgera said “we can’t talk about protecting human rights from climate change without talking about – and taking urgent action on – phasing out fossil fuels.”
Morgera recently presented a report to the UNHRC about the need to decarbonise economies in order to meet international human rights obligations. The report says the fossil fuel phase-out “should be understood as an important precondition for the right to development and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”.
Since the adoption of the Dubai deal in 2023, governments have struggled to repeat explicit mentions to the fossil fuel transition in texts adopted by other international summits. Last year, at COP29 in Baku, Saudi Arabia opposed all mentions to fossil fuels in the conference decisions.
Still, for Duyck, the UNHRC debate shows there is growing pressure from governments to call out fossil fuel production at international talks. “This is really becoming a topic in itself. Some countries are no longer willing to keep their head in the sand,” he added.
The post UN Human Rights Council fails to call out fossil fuels after decision cuts mention appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN Human Rights Council fails to call out fossil fuels after decision cuts mention
More than 92,000 people have registered to attend the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, potentially making it the largest COP in history.
Carbon Brief analysis of the provisional lists of delegates, published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reveals that more than 14,000 delegates have been registered as “host country guests”.
For comparison, the provisional list for COP30 in Belém, Brazil, last year included only around 1,000 delegates in this category.
As with COP30, Donald Trump’s US government has not sent a delegation. Other no-shows include Israel and Myanmar.
It was reported ahead of the summit that Taliban officials from Afghanistan had been registered for the event as observers; however, there are no delegates from observer states in the provisional lists.
With more than 3,000 “virtual” delegates signed up to attend the summit online, the total number of people registered for the event surpasses 95,000.
Further analysis of the participant lists will be added to this article in due course.
Party delegates
With 92,934 participants registered, COP31 is provisionally the largest COP in history – topping COP28 in Dubai, which was attended by more than 80,000 people.
This total is based on the delegates that have registered to be at the summit in person. The UNFCCC releases the final figures – based on participants collecting a physical badge at the venue – after the summit has ended.
The chart below shows how the provisional figures for COP31 compare to the final totals in previous COPs – going back to COP1 in Berlin in 1995.
The participant lists provided by the UNFCCC are divided between the different types of groups and organisations attending the summit. The largest group at COP31 is for delegates representing parties. These are nation-states, plus the European Union, that have ratified the convention and play a full part in negotiations.
This group adds up to 18,812 delegates – the second largest after COP28.
Membership
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(In keeping with recent COPs, the UNFCCC has published spreadsheets that name every single person that has registered for the summit – excluding support staff. Previously, COPs have typically included thousands of “overflow” participants in which countries and UN agencies could nominate delegates without their names appearing on their official lists.)
For consistency with Carbon Brief’s analysis of previous COPs, the above chart includes overflow delegates as a single group. However, the participant lists do divide the overflow delegates between parties and observer groups. Including the overflow numbers takes the total for party representatives to more than 34,000.
Nations
The map and table below present the delegation size – split between party and overflow badges – for all the countries registered for COP31. The darker the shading, the more delegates that country has signed up. Use the search box to find the data for a specific party.
Unsurprisingly, host nation Turkey has registered the largest delegation for COP31 – with 2,950 people.
Following behind are Brazil (1,994 people), Nigeria (1,506), China (1,021) and Indonesia (978).
The rest of the top 10 is made up of Australia (835), Uganda (627), Italy (607), Japan (588) and Kazakhstan (557).
The UK comes someway down the list with a delegation of 255.
The smallest delegation comes from North Korea (two), followed by Eritrea and Nicaragua (three) and San Marino and Trinidad and Tobago (four).
(It is worth noting that some countries – such as Brazil – allocate some of their party badges to NGOs, which can artificially inflate the size of their official delegation.)
The post Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP31? appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP31?
Some big fossil fuel-producing countries – among them India, Nigeria and Germany – have swung behind the Brazil-led roadmap to phase out coal, oil and gas, while the UN chief said on Tuesday that all countries should start to make progress on cutting fossil fuels by 2028.
COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago presented the newly published global roadmap on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF) to a packed plenary room in Antalya, cheered on by rounds of applause from delegates and civil society.
Nigeria – an OPEC oil producer that participated in the Santa Marta conference on phasing out fossil fuels earlier this year – welcomed the roadmap and said its recognition that countries have different starting points is “fundamental”.
“As a developing country with significant energy resources, energy access challenges and growing industrial ambitions, we must industrialise and decarbonise simultaneously,” the Nigerian delegate told the event.
She welcomed the roadmap’s proposed system for nations to self-identify their fossil fuel demand, supply and exposure of their wider economies, but said the “real test of this roadmap” will be translating transition pathways into “investable opportunities”.
